Hey. I am researching our options for high school for next year. We've used TOG for awhile now, although we've become more relaxed in how we do it. I'm considering usiing it in a more rigorous way for h.s. (the new TOG version) and was wanting to know more aobut virtual co-ops. How do they work? What are your comments, both positive and negative. Ideally I'd like to hear from those of you who have used ones with Rhetoric level kids.
Thanks so much.
Barbara

Hi, Barbara,

Wow -- you started thinking about this early! I'm not sure if you're still thinking about it, since I don't see any posts, but for what they're worth, here are my thoughts about virtual co-ops after almost three years of doing them.

• they allow for real support and community, for both moms and students
  
• they provide accountability for staying on target with the schedule, ensuring that you get through the year in a designated time period
  
• they help to share the load of teaching, which can get overwhelming, particularly if you have more than one of the upper levels for whom you are responsible (i.e., dialectic and rhetoric students)
  
• it's not substantially different from working in any other co-op situation, if you've done this before -- you're still working with other sinners, with different giftings and different priorities for your families, so there will always be some tensions.
  
• it's a trade-off of some of the benefits listed above with a yielding of a certain amount of self-determination -- you're not as free to stop and "smell the roses" if there's a week you really enjoy, unless you can convince the rest of your group to do it with you. The schedule knife cuts both ways...
  
• our experience is that it allows me to assess how well my students have mastered the material they've been studying in an alternative format to the evaluations -- and the students tend to enjoy the interaction with other students and other teachers.
  
• some moms are more gifted in some areas than others, and when you share teaching, or administration, or any other gift, you need to be willing to grant grace to one another and let go of some of the control you would have were you doing it by yourself.
  
• virtual co-ops have their own challenges inherent in the technology. We are not at a point yet where the technology is flawless, at least at the free level -- we haven't tried paying for a service yet, so I can't speak to that. It means that there are often challenges technologically that add stress, especially for the teachers -- they are character-building and modeling opportunities, but not usually enjoyable .
  

That list isn't exhaustive, by any means, but I thought I'd at least start the discussion. If you're interested in a Year 1 co-op for the school year '08-'09, contact me at millersbran@yahoo.com -- we're starting to get organized, and would welcome you to come check us out!

We're just finishing up a year of virtual co-op for literature. I agree with everything Jan said. For our family, I've discovered that doing a co-op is worth it. In fact, I've enjoyed it so much that for the fall, I'm starting an in-the-flesh co-op around here. In order to do that, I had to find other people doing my year of Tapestry - and that meant talking my friends into doing Tapestry with me!

I'm doing it in the flesh this year because I really found some of the aspects of virtual co-ops frustrating:

- We got to know and like people, but won't have a chance to meet them or do other things with them (except for one, who, by chance, lives a mile from us).
- When I was teaching, I couldn't monitor what the students were doing. Were they listening? Web surfing? Had they stepped out of the room? Were they silent because they were trying to give others a chance, because they were shy, because they didn't do the work this week, because they didn't understand the question, or because they didn't care?
- The technology was distracting.

If our local co-op doesn't work next year, I'll stay with the virtual co-op for literature. I loved not having to read every work of rhetoric literature, having my kids work with other moms, and being help to a schedule. The negatives were worth it.

Hello Ladies,

This will be my forth year participating in a virtual co-op. I just started a Yahoo Group specifically for virtual co-ops: how to, share ideas, find others...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TOGVirtualCo-opSynergy/

We are new but hopefully this will be a place of great help.

Blessings,
Barb Spanier